


Blood Feathers

by LemonScience33



Category: Jurassic Park (1993)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Feathered dinosaurs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5527772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonScience33/pseuds/LemonScience33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jurassic Park<br/>Screenplay by David Koepp<br/>Based on the novel by Michael Crichton<br/>Adapted by LemonScience33 for <a href="palaeoplushies.tumblr.com">palaeoplushies</a></p><p>OR</p><p>A Jurassic Park AU where the raptors are <i>Velociraptor mongoliensis</i> instead of <i><strike>Velociraptor</strike> Deinonychus antirrhopus</i>, there are a lot more of them, and they look like this: <a href="http://palaeoplushies.tumblr.com/tagged/lifesize-velociraptor">http://palaeoplushies.tumblr.com/tagged/lifesize-velociraptor</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood Feathers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [palaeoplushies](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=palaeoplushies).



> I didn't rewrite the whole script, just the raptor parts, but this was a really fun exploration of how the movie could have looked. In some ways, these smaller feathered raptors are more frightening to me. Being smaller, they're more agile. I also decided they hunt in larger packs. (As you may know, in the novel, there are supposed to be 8 raptors, but they've bred, and there are _37_. *shiver* I didn't go that far, but that was the inspiration.) They also leave feathers behind as a nice little souvenir of how you almost died.
> 
> A note on the title: when we're talking about birds, a "[blood feather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_feather)" is another term for a pin feather (a developing feather) whose shaft is full of blood to support its growth. I have no idea if velociraptors had complex enough feathers that they'd need blood feathers, but I couldn't resist the wordplay.
> 
> I rewrote much of the text based on a late-1992 draft of the _Jurassic Park_ script, which I found here: <http://www.jpdatabase.net/jurassic-park/script/> Thank you to JP Database for making this resource available!
> 
> I'm a more casual paleontology fan than some of my readers will be, so I hope I didn't get anything too glaringly wrong and that you'll forgive me if I did. :)

Alan Grant picked up the baby dinosaur and cupped its tiny body in the palm of his hand, under the incubator's heat light. He delicately ran his finger over its tail, counting the vertebrae, feeling the softness of its newborn feathers.

“What species is this?” he asked.

Henry Wu looked up from his clipboard. “Uh – it’s a Velociraptor,” he said.

Grant’s stomach churned. “You bred raptors?”

 

~

 

Ellie took off running as fast as she could, back the way she had come. She dragged the flashlight with her, continuing to run from the three raptors, her headset dangling, the flashlight dragging behind her on its cord.

She reached the stairs and hit them hard, flying up them. The raptors were right behind her. She could hear the clicking and clanging as they scrambled up the stairs, the excited rustle of feathers. She reached the top, threw open the door, hurled herself outside, and slammed the door behind her.

She didn’t allow herself to collapse until she made it to the fence and shut the gate behind her.

A tiny spot of blood on her arm caught her eye. Was it hers, she wondered, or Mr. Arnold’s?

But it wasn’t blood.

Stuck to the sweat of Ellie’s arm was a tiny red feather. She brushed it away frantically and wrapped her arms around herself, sobbing.

 

~

 

Muldoon crept slowly through the jungle foliage, tracking his prey, following the rustling sound up ahead of him. He could see just a hint of red and black as the raptors moved into the bushes up ahead, hidden enough to deny him a decent shot. He had a moment, he thought, a moment to wait for the raptors to move into the open again. Muldoon extended the back handle of the shotgun and clicked it into place. He prepared to take aim.

The bushes moved, and Muldoon smiled.

His finger tensed on the trigger. Suddenly, a terrible thought struck him, and cold spread through his veins. His eyes flicked to the side, where a hint of red was visible in the brush.

“Clever girls,” he murmured, and moved the gun too late.

Four raptors pounced in unison, a flock of predatory birds. The shotgun blast went wide, catching the tip of one raptor’s arm feathers but missing any flesh.

Muldoon screamed and fell back, 60 kg of death descending on him as the four raptors staked their claims to his legs, his belly, his neck.

The last thing he saw was red legs and multicolored arms.

 

~

 

Tim and Lex stared in shock as the doors began to swing open. These doors were too heavy for one raptor, but they were working together. The first of the two raptors stood in the doorway, drew itself up to its full height, and looked around the kitchen. It was the size of a dog.

“It’s inside,” Lex gasped.

She and Tim moved into the room, brushing against each other.

Lex heard the rustle of feathers and a barking call. She risked peeking around the counter. Four more raptors joined the first one in the doorway, and Lex pulled back.

The raptors split, taking two different aisles. Lex and Timmy crawled away down a third aisle, around the other side of the counter from the raptors, moving in the opposite direction.

Lex tried not to worry about how awkwardly Timmy was moving, his muscles sore and weak from the electric fence. As Tim and Lex passed the raptors, the raptor on the counter smacked into some pots and pans with its tail, knocking them off the counter. Pots and pans fell on them along with a broken tail feather. Lex knew she’d have a few nasty bruises if – _when -_ they made it out of this.

Lex and Tim kept moving as one of the raptors peeked around, looking through an open cabinet to inspect the racket.

They reached the end of the aisle and rounded a corner – but Timmy was falling behind now, and Lex heard the telltale _clink_ as he brushed against several hanging utensils.

The raptors turned as one. Lex could hear her heartbeat loud in her ears as the ladle clattered to the floor, the metallic sound echoing. The alpha raptor barked a call.

The pack moved in attack formation, in Tim's direction, heading right for him as two raptors hopped onto the counter. They were closing in on all sides.

Lex grabbed a spoon without thinking, tapped it on the floor until she heard the raptors stop moving. She ran in a crouch as quickly as she could, meeting up with Tim as he stumbled toward the walk-in freezer. There were three raptors on their heels.

They reached the freezer, ripped the door open, and fell inside. The floor was cold and slick, and Timmy’s feet went right out from under him, but Lex’s shoes had better traction, and she held up her little brother as the raptors took the bait and careened past them, their bird-like feet slipping and skidding on the floor, their sharp claws little help against the sudden shock of ice.

Lex pulled Tim out of the freezer and slammed the door, catching the head of one of the raptors in it. It snarled and pulled back to regroup, scraping off two small red feathers as it did so. Lex got the door shut all the way, hearing the frantic contact calls from inside as she jammed the pin through the handle, locking the tropical creatures in the freezer.

Two raptors were left, stalking them from across the kitchen. Lex grabbed the nearest heavy object, a cast-iron skillet, and she and Tim backed toward the door. Lex’s years in softball paid off – she caught the raptor across the featherless part of its face. The second raptor let out a hiss and fell back to watch its pack-mate, who lay dazed but alive on the floor.

They made it out the door and sprinted to the restaurant, right into Alan and Ellie.

 

~

 

Three raptors remaining, and they were fast, hopping between the suspended bones like it was nothing. Their flapping arms provided stabilization more than lift, and Alan found room to be both terrified and fascinated.

Then the anchor bolts ripped free, and everyone fell.

The raptors quickly regrouped, circling. Ellie had a mean kick, and Alan had his pocket knife, but there was nothing, no real weapons to fight against them. A hundred collective pounds of predator had smelled blood – and one of the raptors hadn’t eaten yet today.

Alan grabbed for Ellie’s hand. They’d shield the children with their bodies. The raptors were small, so maybe Alan alone would be enough to slow them down, feed the hungry raptor, enough for the kids and Ellie to make it out of the visitors’ center.

The raptors crouched. The alpha pounced, and Alan prepared to meet it –

– the Tyrannosaurus rex’s powerful jaws snatched the alpha from midair. The other raptors turned from the humans and lunged at the rex's pale-feathered belly, ripping at her as she snapped at them.

Alan herded Ellie and the children behind him. They ran.

 

~

 

“Despite your paleontological accuracy, Mr. Hammond,” Alan said, “I've decided not to endorse your Park.”

They sped away in the Jeep.

“So have I,” Hammond said, guilt weighing on his voice.

 

~

 

The helicopter carried them to the mainland, past a small flock of seagulls.

They were the color of T. rexes.


End file.
